Friuli Wine Tour

Saturday, December 5

I love going on wine tours! Italy makes it super easy to go on wine tours almost whenever you want. This time I was doing a wine tour through the Friuli Region with Laura, an Italian who is married to a Airmen, who puts together these wines tours just for people to be able to explore and have fun tasting the different wines of Northern Italy.

This wine tour we were going to go to 3 different wineries and also have a traditional Italian lunch (multiple courses).

The first winery was Emilio Bulfon, which was about 30 minutes from my house.

We got a tour of the winery and also where they store the wine for aging. We also got to see some of their old bottles, where they used to hand paint every label that was put on the wine bottles for selling. The label was taken from a section of the painting "The Last Supper." So much detail went into the bottles that used to be hand-painted. I'm definitely keeping some of my empty bottle from here! :)

For the tasting we got to sit at a long table that prepared with different types of cheeses, meats, breads and other delicious pairings for the wine or to snack on ;)

We got to sample about 5 or 6 of their different wines before we could purchase some.

Meanwhile, we got to chat and enjoy the lovely atmosphere, cute decorations and the fireplace.

After this it was time to head to lunch. 

We went to a place in Spilimbergo called La Torre, which is located inside an old castle. 

I got to sit at the table with the cute window, overlooking the fields, which was very peaceful looking. We first started off with a bread basket, some water and wine.


























Next, polenta with a cream sauce on top and some fresh grated cheese.

Then the mushroom risotto.

Now to the main dish, the meat and potatoes.

Last but not least, the dessert, tiramisu. Of course there is also cappuccino or a cafe as well but since I don't drink coffee I did not have any thing else.

Also, while I was here, I posted a picture of where we were eating and one of my Italian friends wrote on it to let me know her aunt also works there and was working there that same day. Unfortunately, since I still do not know Italian very well I had Laura, our wine tour guide, translate for me. This is such a small world! Out of all the restaurants in Italy, we got to go to the one my friend's aunt works at.

After being stuffed with food, it was time to go to another vineyard!

The next winery was called Pitars. This winery's ground were very beautiful! The house for tasting and purchasing wine was massive and decorated very nicely on the inside.

(The front of Pitars)

First we got to go up to the top of the house to see the views from up there, which were amazing!

(Upstairs Room)

(The view)

(The view)

Now to make our way over to where they make and store the wine.

(Back of Pitars)

It's always crazy to me how big the containers of wine are. I wish I could have my own ;)

(The cellar)

Back to the tasting room in the main house. Which was also very nicely decorated like the rest of the house.

(Tasting Room)

We had a whole set up again of different cheeses and salamis to snack on while tasting the wine.

Again the wine, was very tasty!

After tasting all of them, we were allowed to go to the wine store on the other side of the house to purchase. There were some really cool bottles and glassware they had you could purchase. Maybe I'll just have to go back to buy some later!

(Part of the wine shop)

On to the third and final winery of the day. 

This winery was called, Borgo Delle Oche.

We got to sample 4 or 5 different wines, again while snacking on some cheese and crackers.

This was a very small and intimate place compared to the other places we got to sample wines.

Of course by the end of the day everybody was feeling really happy! So of course Mary and I started taking tons of silly selfies. 

After a fun filled day of vineyard hoping, it is time to head back home.

I have a hard time deciding what was my favorite winery, but two of them I especially enjoyed and loved their wines. The two I really liked were Emilio Bulfon and Pitars. The last winery was still really good though.

The wine I bought for my ever growing wine collection. Wish I had bought more though! :)

Lenny & Larry's Ambassador

Saturday, November 14

I had always heard about the cookies Lenny & Larry's makes and thought they were to good to be true. Since one cookie has 16g of protein! So when I found out I could become an ambassador for them, I thought why not, as I love to eat their cookies anyway. Still need to try their brownies and muffins!

I received an email on this day saying that I had been accepted into their ambassador program! Yipee! Win-win for me, as I receive a discount code for something I already enjoy eating! :)

Another step for me of getting my name out there in the fitness world!

Spike Trail Running Photoshoot in Tre Cime

Saturday, November 7

I was super lucky one day after the gym, as my husband and I randomly decided we needed to go to the BX for something. If we did not go to the BX this day and time I most likely would have never had this amazing opportunity.

We were stopped as we were walking in to the BX by a guy who said he sees us all the time at the gym and wondered if we ever do trail running. I said I do sometimes, but Preston doesn't really anymore because of his shin splints. He told us he was a photographer and needed to do a trail run photoshoot for work and to send the pictures to a the company who wanted him to have someone test out their spike shoes for trail running. I told him that sounds like fun to me, why not. He gave me his website to go look at, so we could see what type of photos he takes.

When I went to look at his website, I did not realize what a big time photographer he was! It's always skeptical when someone randomly approaches you like this. But he has taken photos for National Geographic, celebrities, and even politicians to name a few. This made me even more excited to email him and find out a day and time he wanted to do the pictures.

We ended up deciding on November 7 to go up to Tre Cime, which is about 2.5 hours from our house, to take the pictures.

The views are absolutely stunning up in Tre Cime! I couldn't believe I was actually doing a photoshoot up there!

As in all photoshoots, everything is very repetitive, so if you are not patient and willing to repeat things over and over then this is definitely not something for you. I did not mind at all how many times I had to repeat things, I was just in awe that I was actually doing this.

We ended up spending literally the whole day in Tre Cime taking photos. By the time we were done I was beyond hungry! As we did not bring any food, as we thought it wasn't going to take as long and if it did that we were going to take a break and eat something somewhere. But oh well.

I think the day was a success and beyond exciting and fun! I got to do something I never thought I would do. I would love to do another photoshoot with him!

Below are some of the photos that were taken.

Pumpkin Festival in Cordenons

Sunday, October 25

Every year around Halloween there are many pumpkin or holiday related festivals around where I live in Northern Italy. This year I decided I wanted to go to one since I was not able to go last year. I saw that Cordenons was having one a weekend I didn't have anything going on so I asked my friend Mary if she would come explore the festival with me, she said she would.

Festivals here are different than what you think of in the states where there are different scary looking carnival rides and games to play. Here it is more of different booths selling different food items, toys, crafts or fresh food and drinks. Plus they close down a lot of the streets in town just to set up for these events, which sometimes makes it very hard to get anywhere.

Of course when we walked through the starting section of the festival we saw a cart who was selling different drinks. We had to try the pumpkin beer, which actually turned out to not be as bad as I was thinking it would be. You can't go to a pumpkin festival and not try the pumpkin beer ;)

(Cheers!)

Once we had our beers we were set to explore the rest of the festival.

We had also come to try and find some pumpkins, since Halloween was just a few days away. Unfortunately we did not find any that we liked or felt like carrying back to the car.

There was however a lot of really delicious looking foods! We did sample some of the stuff, like different breads and olive oils, as you would expect. We also got to taste some of the vendors local honey. I'm obsessed with honey! I have tried so many different kinds of honey from our travels and no one has tasted the same, but they all have been delicious!

After walking around and seeing all the different things this pumpkin festival had to offer, we decided to start heading back to the car. These festivals end up being a lot bigger than you would expect. They take over at least a dozen or more different streets in town. On the way back we got offered a bag full of fresh apples. Which you would think would be a little weird, but all the other Italians that walked by were accepting them as well. That is another nice thing about being over here, usually they are not trying to scam you in buying something you don't want.

I would love to go to more festivals, since there are different ones to go to almost every weekend. Definitely a good way to interact and learn more about the Italian culture. 

WOD for Awareness

Saturday, October 24

As most people know, I am huge into fitness and started doing Crossfit while we have been stationed over here. So when our Crossfit group decided to do a WOD for Awareness, of course I wanted to be apart of it!

Even though the WOD was nothing to be happy about, it was idea of what we were doing it for. The WOD was "GRACE," which is 30 clean & jerks. For women the weight was 95lbs, which does not sound bad, but once you start you will definitely feel it!

I had previously done this WOD once before and was not a fan, and this time I still wasn't. I did however improve my time from last time, which is always a plus! :)

After everyone had completed the WOD our coach, Tiffany had made gift baskets for the best female and male time and then did a raffle for the "big bag" prize. On top of that, she always made everyone a little protein snack they could take. It was really delicious for being a healthy snack.

I cannot remember who won for the fastest male time but I will say I did win for the fastest female :) In the gift bag I received, it had a shaker bottle, chalk and a 2 protein bars. It was perfect because I was about to buy a new shaker bottle.

One thing I love about doing weekend group workouts is that we all go somewhere after to eat! We went to Bobe's, which is a local restaurant that actually serves American breakfast. Yes, having an American breakfast every once in a while is a special treat over here in Italy.

Wyvern Mud Run

Saturday, October 17

CE decided to host the first ever Wyvern Mud Run on base. I was so excited when I heard and saw the flyer for this event, I knew I had to sign up! I had wanted to sign up for the Tough Mudder in Germany but ended up not being able to go, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to do one. The Mud Run consisted of approximately 6.5 miles of running with different obstacles along the way. I was very interested in how they were going to set this up throughout the base.

You could either sign up as an individual or with a team of 4. I was a part of a team, it was Preston, our crossfit coach Tiffany and her husband, Wes, on our team.

Of course the day of I was a little nervous and excited since I had never done anything like this before. I'm glad though I got to do it with friends, that makes it so much better.

When we got there we had to sign in and get our bib numbers and since we signed up early enough, we also all got a towel.

We were in the last group of people to go. First were the squadrons who were competing, then the individuals and then us, the groups. To start the race you had to run through a huge sectioned off pool of mud. If you didn't have your shoes tied super tight, you definitely were going to lose them. Which happened to multiple people and it was really funny to watch them try and find their shoes while basically being trampled over by the rest of the people running by.

After we started the first obstacle was a large board and rope you had to climb up then jump down. At first I was a little disappointed because you had to run a ways to even get to the first obstacle. But after the first two obstacles there were more back-to-back you had to go through or over.

There were so many obstacles you had to go through, some of there obstacles were climbing up huge wood boards, running through tires, crawling in the mud under barbed wire while being hose with a fire truck, team-working your way over a 15 ft cement wall, running through wires with electricity running through them, monkey bars (so hard, as it was at the end after being covered in mud and soaked with water), and tire flips.

There was a section of the course where they told you to remember a certain set of numbers and letters depending on the last number on your bib. But they did not tell you for what or when you would need them again. Plus, if you weren't paying attention to a random sign in between 2 courses you would have missed it.

I was so excited when I knew the finish line was coming up, but to stop that momentum, we got stopped and asked what our number and letters were that coincided with the last number on our bib. Of course I thought I remembered mine but then when it was my turn to say mine I realized I had one too many numbers. But thankfully I chose the right number. Preston though, unfortunately was the only one who got a number wrong and had to do burpees as the penalty.

After that it was a race to the finish line. Again, before fully finishing the race you had to run back through the huge pool of mud.

We made it!!

I might look a little goofy, but I was happy one of Tiffany's friends took these pictures at the finish line :)

So happy there was food and drinks after the race because I was starving! Since it was the first event and still learning the ropes, there was only hot dogs, chips and water or soda. But at least there was something.

All-in-all I would say the race was a success! We all finished and nobody got hurt! I would love to do another one of these types of races in the future!

LiveSore Ambassador

Sunday, October 4

In my previous post about my photoshoot I had stated I wanted to try and represent a company or brand that dealt with health and fitness. Perfect timing for me, as I randomly stumbled upon an athletic clothing line that was looking for new ambassadors to represent their new and upcoming company and also the company has a pretty good cause it represents with it. If you buy one of their "stand up to cancer shirts" they will donate $5 directly back to the Stand up for Cancer cause. So why not try and become apart of a new and upcoming company.

I applied Sunday night, which was the last day you could apply to become a part of their program. But then had to wait for a response...

Tuesday, October 6

It was not until Tuesday night that I received the email saying "Welcome to the LiveSore Ambassador Program." I was so excited when I opened up that email as I am now slowly getting my foot in the door of the athletic marketing world, as this is what my dream job would be and what I am currently getting my first Master's degree in.

The next step was then to wait for my "ambassador starter kit" to arrive, and who knows how long that would take with how slow the mail is sometimes over here.